Comelec musn’t be happy with ‘almost perfect’ — Binay

02/09/2010

United Opposition (UNO) Vice Presidential candidate Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay has said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should not be satisfied with the “almost perfect” results of the mock polls it held last weekend as there should be no room for error in the first-ever automated elections in the country.

Binay lauded the Comelec’s intention to iron out the kinks in the automated polls through the conduct of dry runs, but said it is too soon for the poll body to pat itself on the back for a job well done.

“Almost perfect, which is their (poll officials) own description of the mock polls, is not good enough. I have always maintained that this is the first time for the country to hold automated elections, and there is a need to be doubly vigilant to ensure that no aspect of the polls can be exploited by unscrupulous candidates,” he said.

Binay further said the voter information campaign should also not take a back seat to other aspects of the automated polls.

“During Saturday’s mock polls, the Comelec admitted that many of the voters were still not fully informed on how to properly handle the ballots, which has resulted in the machines not accepting the entries. I guess that it is high time for them to step up their information drive and not leave it to the last minute,” he said.

Training for teachers who will serve as Board of Election Inspectors on Election Day on May 10 is expected to start in March, while succeeding mock polls in remote areas are yet to be scheduled in the coming weeks.

“They (Comelec officials) have warned the Filipino voters that there will be no room for error in placing their votes. But I guess it’s time to take their own advice,” Binay said.

The opposition candidate said aside from disrupting the transmission of the signals through cellphone jammers, the Comelec should also address the possibility raised by a Princeton study of electronic sabotage of the Automated Election System, which is the same type of voting equipment used in the United States.

The issue of electronic sabotage was raised by former Senator Francisco Tatad early this week as he cited an experiment conducted by computer experts from the US Ivy League university wherein a malicious software was introduced to the memory card that rewrote everything on the flash drive. The virus deleted itself after the attack, leaving no trace of the assault after it was completed.

Binay said what was alarming was that the virus was able to completely reverse the results of the polls in favor of the losing party in just a span of one minute.

“This will mean that there will be no evidence to prove that the election results were tampered, and I think this idea holds a lot of merit. The Comelec and Smartmatic can dismiss this report by saying that the system is secure enough, but the possibility is not far-fetched,” he said.

Binay said the reported entry of 5,000 signal jammers to the country may well be an indication that election cheats are willing to use technology to manipulate the results of the polls.

“What’s worse, while the Comelec is preparing for elections and focusing their strengths on the dry runs, the cheats may well be working on their own dry runs to disrupt the preparations of the poll body when the actual election is held,” he said.

“Every possibility must be considered by the poll body, especially during this time that the critical period is almost at hand. The people’s mandate could once again fall prey to the evil intentions of those want to gain or retain power no matter what the cost,” he added.

Binay also raised the issue of security for the source codes, a software that dictates the functions of the Precinct Count Optical Scan machines, should also be a priority of the Comelec.

While it was reported that the codes will be turned over to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for safekeeping, he said the Comelec should make sure that additional safeguards are set in place and only persons whose integrities will not be compromised should handle the task of securing the codes.

“We cannot say what can happen. These codes may fall in the wrong hands, duplicated, or worse. I raise these possibilities not to play the devil’s advocate but because somebody should speak up on these issues because the future of the country at stake,” Binay said.

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